1st Edition

The European Union in the Security of Europe From Cold War to Terror War

By Steve Marsh, Wyn Rees Copyright 2012
    256 Pages
    by Routledge

    260 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book examines the European Union’s contribution to providing security in Europe amidst an increasingly complex and challenging environment.

    In this new and comprehensive guide to the EU's role in security since the end of the Cold War, the authors offer an explanation of EU internal and external security regimes, and argue that the Union has become an important exporter of security within its region. However, the Union’s rhetorical ambitions and commitments continue to outstrip its capabilities and it lacks both a common conceptualisation of security and a meaningful, shared strategic culture. Drawing extensively on primary sources the book examines the Union’s relations with the US and Russia in a time of shifting geostrategic calculations and priorities. With the EU capacity for enlargement slowing, this text presents a detailed assessment of EU security policies towards Central Europe, the Mediterranean, the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and South Caucasus.

    European Union Security will be of interest to students and scholars of the EU, security studies, and international relations.

    1. Introduction: The Nature of Security  2. The EU and Internal Security  3. The EU and External Security  4. The US, European Security and EU-US Relations: ‘The Indispensable Nation’?  5. Russia, European Security and Relations with the EU: The Underprivileged Strategic Partnership?  6. EU Enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe  7. The EU and the Eastern Arc of Instability: The Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and South Caucasus  8. The EU and its Southern Mediterranean Neighbours.  Conclusion.  References.  Bibliography

    Biography

    Steve Marsh is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Politics Department at Cardiff University.

    Wyn Rees is Professor of International Security at the University of Nottingham.

    "The book is coherently and convincingly structured. The introduction sets up the themes for analysis and argues for a broader security agenda – which would include poverty and disease, environmental problems, immigration, energy and resource insecurity, along with more traditional military threats... The book truly provides a sound and detailed account of the EU’s performance as security provider in Europe, and is very insightful in delineating the rationale, as well as the main problems, behind EU’s policy decisions... A welcome contribution to the literature on the EU’s external relations. Empirically rich, plenty of insightful and compelling observations, it is a recommended reading for any student of EU foreign policy." - Nicola Chelotti, UCL, University of Aberdeen; e-International Relations, October 2012.

    "An excellent study. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, undergraduate students, graduate students, and research faculty." - R. P. Peters, University of Massachusetts at Boston, CHOICE